Egypt’s poverty rate declines for the 1st time in 2 decades

The Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) released a research finding that indicate that Egypt’s poverty rate in fiscal year 2019/2020 decreased by almost 3% from the rates of Fiscal year 2017/2018. It’s the first time the rate decreases since 1999. The decrease is reasoned by the economic reform program that Egypt undertook in 2016.

The research study looks at poverty, consumption and income and inspected 26,000 households in Egypt. Another finding was that the average annual income of an Egyptian household increased by 15% from EGP 60,400 to EGP 69,100 in 2020.

This research measures the living standards in Egypt and helps the government direct funds and create development plans to decrease poverty and increase standard of living.

For example, the government allocated more than EGP 590 billion to public investments in the budget of 2020/2021; an increase of 70% in this category and the largest ever. The government took this step to alleviate the repercussions of the economic reform and the COVID-19 pandemic.